what to do

do it to it:

LISTEN TO EARTHEN SEA this one, mirage, is such a nice record. i've listened to it plenty (and wrote this review about it) but just to be sure any ambient techno heads out there don't miss out on it, here's "velvet grey" which is probably my favorite track from the EP.

SIGN THIS PETITION it requests that panasonic restart production of the much-loved technics line of turntables. who knows what effect if any this would have, but we can dream, right? plus, it's nice to see more than 16,000 other signatories (at the time of this post) agree. sign it!

ANTICIPATE A NEW ALBUM FROM JOSH EUSTIS i'm a huge fan of telefon tel aviv, so when charlie cooper tragically died five years ago as the duo were releasing their latest (and for now, last) album, i was pretty emotional about it. now it's time for a solo album from the duo's other half, josh eustis, produced under the name sons of magdalene. it looks like it'll be heavy listening: eustis started the project in 2007 after learning that his father was diagnosed with cancer. check out this FACT news/interview for more details. release date: june 24.

TURN ON MAGIC MOUNTAIN HIGH'S "RIPTIDE"


PAY ATTENTION TO JOAN CORNELLÀ this (visual) artist has turned into one of my favorites, ever since i discovered his work at some point late last year. his comic strips play out, sans words, like some strange sort of cheerful and often violent game of chess... fascinating stuff. yes, all three images in this post come from him. go to his facebook page to find more.

DO VOODOO WITH A MIX FROM PATRICK WALKER now for something from a former anatomy mixer. originally posted back in november, this has been one of my go-to mixes. "one for fans of lost / bicknell / mills / oliver ho" says patrick. fast, dense, relentlessly percussive and oh yeah, it's a vinyl set. *dope* OG voodoo techno!


LET THIS NEW CASUAL VIOLENCE TRACK MELT YOUR SKULL and now a fresh jam from another friend of the blog: an unreleased track "recorded in one take, using one sound source (on one channel only)"... you might have an idea of what to expect, but either way, prepare your head.


ZOOM INTO SPACE WITH A REMIX FROM SKIRT (which i reviewed here)


BE ANGRY AT BUDGET CUTS AFFECTING NASA'S SPACE EXPLORATION PROGRAMS if you're from the US and/or you're a fan of space exploration, this new york times piece from a few weeks ago might grind your gears. in budgets of hundreds of billions of dollars, it's absurd that the government might not be able to allocate something like 22 million to keep these projects alive, but can find much more money than that to buy tanks the army does not want.

DIVE INTO AN EXCELLENT AMBIENT MIX FROM MULTICAST DYNAMICS aka VC-118A, aka mohlao, real name samuel van dijk. a very deep, layered journey, with abstract and ambient tracks from brian eno, mike parker, sleeparchive, robert henke/monolake, and so on... yeah, i *highly* recommend this one.


TUNE OUT WITH IMAGINARY SOFTWOODS this 2011 album the path of spectrolite, produced by john elliott (formerly of emeralds, currently of outer space) under the name imaginary softwoods, is a relatively recent discovery for me. so i'm a little late, but whatever, it is fantastic, and one of my most listened-to albums over the past few months.


and that's all folks. more stuff to come really, really soon....

(my) recent RA reviews

i've started writing some more RA reviews on a regular basis. here's a pile of recent ones; feel free to read, like, hate, comment, or whatever...

korova - horizontally three solid tracks from korova and NX1, but skirt's groovy, spacey remix is easily my favorite.

earthen sea - mirage a very nice record of what you might call ambient techno, released on ital's label lovers rock. warm, melancholy, introspective sounds, spread out across fifty total minutes. highly recommended.

valanx - ejecta remixes four strange, experimental techno tracks turned into... four strange experimental tracks, but the results are actually pretty interesting, and at least wide-ranging.

deepchord - luxury more smooth, warm, heady strands of techno from rod modell.

draag - occulted hard-hitting dj tools, enough said.

Ø - konstellaatio i was quite happy to get to review this album, which is already become a favorite for the year - it shows mika vainio diving further and further into darkly contemplative realms of experimental ambient music.

rick wade - sweet life decent stuff from a longtime purveyor of deep analog house. "the chateau" is the jam.

lakker - containing a thousand mostly more tricky, broken-beat techno from this duo, but i'll say "mausoleum"'s slow, druggy swagger makes that one my favorite.

... and you can find the whole archive of my editorial writing for RA here. look out for more soon!

friday funk

fresh mixes is the theme for today's edition of friday funk: aside from rrose's very nice RA podcast, there's been some excellent sets of sounds put out across the internets this week.

claro intelecto - FACT mix 336 an excellent accompaniment to his recently released LP reform club - which is surely one of the better 'techno' albums out so far this year. claro intelecto (formally known as mark stewart, from the UK) has been making tracks for about a decade, but he seems to be in particularly fine form right now. so, perfect timing for a unique mix for FACT made up of only his own productions; expect sensually slow-burning stuff on this one.

luke slater - CLR podcast 175 (read about it here) taken from luke slater's set at fabric in london last month, it's clear that he has the long game in mind for this one. it's two hours long, and takes a bit of time to get moving, but is totally worth the patience. slater's such a great dj with his own dynamic and almost quirky mixing syle. along the way there's a few developer tracks, a kinky norman nodge remix in the middle, and of course a fair amount of slater and planetary assault systems material.... hell yeah.

skirt - URB exclusive mix i don't think this one is as good as the blinder of a set she recorded just a wee bit ago (probably because that one had a grip of my recent favorite tracks), but as usual skirt has scary-good track selection. extra points for tossing in svreca's excellent "narratif," along with skirt's own "collider" HG remix from the frozen border compilation minutes in ice.

and that's just about all for now. time for my friday to begin with a visit to the beach, probably followed by some partying at smart bar. moodymann and the advent are headlining tonight and tomorrow, respectively. and, my buddy and local dj (and mind behind the currently in-limbo tektite recordings) merrick brown, who incidentally just cooked up a diverse set of electro and techno for the club, is on the bill tomorrow as well.

later this weekend i may do a ustream set at some point; if you haven't noticed via other anatomy social media, i occasionally broadcast sets here. anyway, coming soon: some of my favorite music from the first half of 2012.

skirt, reviews, detroit!

in case you hadn't noticed me shouting about all this via other social media, yours truly has had a busy week over at resident advisor.

first and foremost, i'm really excited to share this "breaking through" feature piece i wrote on skirt. if it's not obvious, i'm a huge fan of skirt's music and it was a pleasure to get to talk to her and find out where she comes from (and where she's going).

then, my three most recent reviews are now up: frankly i wasn't too impressed with the error etica remixes EP, but i loved the plate EP from cassegrain, from the promising new label, modal analysis (of which anatomy mixer slydex is a part of). and then, svreca and orphx's recent efforts on vilna for semantica. both tracks are fucking gnarly - by which i mean, great record.

finally: this weekend, i'll be away on *vacation* in detroit for movement festival and related shenanigans.

there's plenty going on, both at the festival and, just as importantly, at parties around the city. check out our RA guide for a sprawling afterparty overview, or head to little white earbuds for their fine-tuned picks. you can find me at greg wilson and mike huckaby's sets at the festival saturday night, then shit show sunday (i'll be there early for dan bell and public lover), then at mathew jonson's festival set later that night, and probably no way back much later that night, old miami on monday ... who knows what else.

oh and don't worry, things have been a bit too hectic to get the next anatomy mix up in time, but i look forward to sharing it very soon. have a good weekend!

three technos

it's nice and sunny this weekend in chicago - perfect opportunity to open the windows and bug the neighbors with loud weird techno! anyway, here's a trio of mixes that have been on recent repeat.

patrick walker - unseen extracts 01 an exciting new prospect from patrick walker, of forward strategy group (remember his anatomy mix?). in edinburgh, scotland, patrick has launched a new and very intriguing monthly party alongside fellow local neil templar. it's called unseen, and the focus will be on "pitch black techno" - fucking sweet. anyway patrick has cooked up this excellent mix to start a series in support of the party and its guests - even better. local heads, be sure to get to the next unseen party on friday, june 1st, featuring a live set from adam x as traversable wormhole. full support! and of course, FSG's excellent debut album labour division will drop at the end of the month, so be on the lookout for that one.

regis at HOG's 19th birthday that's right, we're keeping it in the UK for this post. bam, here's a live set from the legendary regis, recorded at house of god's 19th birthday party in birmingham earlier this year. included in the set are classic regis jams alongside more recent stuff for sandwell district, blackest ever black and CUB... so just do it.

dj skirt - vinyl mix may 2012 more birmingham talent! skirt is just a bit newer to the scene (and a US native) but no worries, she's definitely an artist to keep an eye out for, i think, with recent inspiring efforts on labels like horizontal ground and semantica. she's also got skills behind the decks, as evidenced by this very nice vinyl mix. lots of tracks from shifted and avian, FSG, and two very nice new records worth pointing out: lakker's arc EP, and a new surface ltd release from francesco baudazzi (obtane!). skirt will be playing at a plex vs perc trax showcase in london on sunday, june 3rd, alongside perc, kangding ray, AnD, and others. pay attention...

that's all for now, but i should finally have anatomy 19 ready to go early next week. and so far it looks like i'll have a few more fun mixes for the summer, so stay tuned.